PROVO — Brandon Doman calls the 2001 BYU Cougars a team of destiny. As far as the senior quarterback is concerned, their destiny is to play in a Bowl Championship Series game.
The way the No. 8 Cougars have been playing this year, maybe he's right.
In front of representatives from the Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Liberty Bowl, Doman and the Cougars rallied on Saturday to break Utah's heart for the second straight season, 24-21.
Just a typical BYU-Utah game. It happened before 66,149 fans, the third-largest crowd in LaVell Edwards Stadium history.
After the Cougar victory — which was sealed by an interception by cornerback Jernaro Gilford — an impromptu fiesta broke out on the field, as what seemed like half the school's student body stormed the turf.
"I thought I was going to get crushed," said coach Gary Crowton. "It was pandemonium."
There was plenty of reason to celebrate — the Cougars beat the Utes for the first time in 10 years on their home turf, they claimed the Mountain West Conference championship outright and improved to a perfect 11-0 overall.
BYU has now qualified for the Liberty Bowl to play Conference USA champion Louisville on Dec. 31. But BYU's players are harboring loftier dreams. "We want the Fiesta Bowl," said senior defensive lineman Ryan Denney. "We want to go to Arizona."
The only way the Cougars get there is if they win their last two games, at Mississippi State on Dec. 1 and at Hawaii on Dec. 8. The rest is out of their control. If BYU is not granted an at-large BCS bowl bid, it will be headed for the Liberty Bowl.
"I don't think that will happen. There's destiny here," Doman said. "If they (the BCS) hold us out, they're going to have a big-time war on their hands."
BYU had a big-time war on its hands Saturday against Utah. The Cougars trailed 21-10 late in the fourth quarter and it appeared the Utes were going to spring the upset, crush BYU's BCS hopes and ruin their season.
But the Cougar offense, which plodded along for most of the game and endured turnovers and dropped passes that could have been touchdowns, drove 92 yards in 2:25, capped by a seven-yard touchdown pass from Doman to Luke Staley. The Cougars added a two-point conversion on a Staley run to pull within three, 21-18 with 3:22 left.
On Utah's ensuing possession, BYU cornerback Brandon Heaney knocked down a Lance Rice pass intended for Ute receiver Josh Lyman on third-and-five. After a punt, the Cougars got the ball back with 2:11 remaining and no timeouts.
A 22-yard pass from Doman to Soren Halladay put BYU on the Utah 30, and on the next play, Staley took a pitch from Doman and raced down the Cougar sideline for the touchdown with 1:16 left. Just to make things more interesting, placekicker Matt Payne shanked the extra point attempt.
The Utes began their final drive on their own seven-yard line. They drove to the BYU 30, but on the ninth play of the drive, Gilford stepped in front of Utah receiver Cliff Russell, picked off the pass and ran 50 yards. And Utah was done.
Gilford had twisted his knee in the first half and missed a couple of series before returning to the game. "It still hurt a little," he said. "But this is the big game. The rivalry."
"How awesome was that?" Doman said of Gilford's pick. "I'm sitting there, praying my head off that something great would happen and Jernaro intercepts the pass. It couldn't have been a sweeter victory."
"I came in knowing we would win," Staley said. "I knew someone would step up and win the game for us."
You want destiny? Yeah, it was an impressive comeback, but that was nothing like the comeback Reno Mahe made. Less than a week earlier, he had undergone an emergency appendectomy and wound up catching five passes for 94 yards and a 23-yard touchdown.
The Utes gave the Cougars their toughest game at home this season and held the nation's highest-scoring team to 24 points. "I think they're a top 20 team," Crowton said. "I have respected them all season and I respect them even more after this game."
But looks like BYU is a team of destiny.
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com